Instructions

These are instructions for the older version of the Universalis app, which was superseded in early February 2014. The new instructions are here. If you are still using iOS 5 or earlier, you will be using the older version of the app.

The Universalis application has two main screens to it.

The text screen shows the text of the page you want. It is described below.

The calendar screen shows the calendar, listing days, dates and feasts. Read about it here.

The text screen

This shows a page of text with some controls at the top.

At the top left is a button which will take you to the calendar screen.

Next to this is a button which opens a Settings screen, to let you choose translations and various other options. Read about it here.

At the top right is a button which gets you to the page you want to read: one of the Hours, the readings at Mass, About Today, and so on.

There are some extra controls which are normally hidden so as not to clutter the screen. To see them, tap once in the middle of the screen. The extra controls will appear at the top.

Information tells you about the Universalis program.

Print prints the current page. This only works if you have a printer around that uses Apple's AirPrint system.

Fonts lets you choose the font you want to use for display.

Moving through the text

Universalis works in two modes: scrolling, and page by page. You can choose between them in the Settings screen. Catholic Calendar only uses the scrolling mode.

In scrolling mode: simply scroll through the text as you are reading it.

In page-by-page mode: to go to the next page, either tap in the right margin or swipe your finger inwards from the right. To go back, either tap in the left margin or swipe your finger inwards from the left.

Controlling the text size

There are two ways of changing the size at which the text is displayed.

Double-tap in the middle of the text to make it one size larger. When the largest size is reached, the next double-tap takes you to the smallest. You can also triple-tap to go straight to a default standard size.

Pinch and zoom: put two fingers on the screen and push them apart to make the text bigger, or push them together to make the text smaller. You can get much larger text sizes this way, especially on the iPad, which is useful if your vision is impaired.

Options in the text

Here and there in some of the pages, you will see a pale blue arrow on the right-hand side. These arrows let you choose among various options within the page.

On optional memorials, you can choose whether to celebrate the memorial or stick with the ferial day.

On memorials, you can choose whether to use the Mass readings of the memorial or those of the ferial day.

In the Liturgy of the Hours, you can choose whether to see the Invitatory Psalm or not.

In the daytime Hours, you can choose whether to see the psalms of the day, the complementary psalms, or both.

In the Order of Mass (and also in Mass Today), you can choose between different penitential rites, Creeds, Eucharistic Prayers, and so on.

Universalis tries to be intelligent in remembering your choice. For instance, if you chose to have the Invitatory Psalm at Morning Prayer today, it will show it to you at Morning Prayer again tomorrow. Of course, if it has guessed wrong, you can use the blue arrow to correct it.